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Price may be high for beer and a movie in Brunswick

This could be happening right here in Brunswick, where the tallest structure in town is the steeple on First Baptist.

Georgia Theatre Company has said it is considering selling beer and wine for consumption on the premises. The details of where and how the alcohol would be served remains unclear, but it’s done at other movie houses.

This makes sense in some cases.

When somebody delivers a good line like Bogie’s “Here’s looking at you, kid,’’ to Bacall, you could raise your glass to the screen in tribute.

If it’s a sad movie, you can cry in your beer.

If they allow the drinks inside the theater auditoriums, who knows to whom they get passed in the dark. Teenagers already do some things in dark theaters they wouldn’t want their parents to see.

On a couple of my blind dates in my high school days, the girls were very happy that other people couldn’t see who they were with.

If theaters allow the beer and wine into the dark theater, a 21-year-old duly carded buyer could just pass it down the aisles to some teenagers.

Some local ministers say that drinking is like the movies: not all the endings are happy.

Rick Postell, associate pastor at Christian Renewal Church, says the church has to be against it as an institution.

“Really and truly, we couldn’t take another stance,’’ Postell said.

The church understands that even though Brunswick is in the Bible Belt, its resort atmosphere has brought people from a lot of cosmopolitan areas who brought their lifestyles with them, lifestyles that include drinking.

“We don’t have to adopt other areas’ viewpoints and practices,’’ Postell said.

He knows there are people in churches on Sunday who want to have a beer of a glass of wine with a meal or in a social setting. That’s a personal choice.

But pastors are the ones who see the broken families that result from alcohol abuse, the desperate dead-enders who show up in church because they’ve run out of places to go.

“We see people who alcohol and drugs have destroyed their lives. People bring them to church and say, ‘Fix this person,’ ’’ he said.

Sometimes they can’t be fixed.

A friend told me Friday he doesn’t think it will be a problem.

“If they charge the same kind of prices they do for popcorn and soft drinks, ain’t nobody going to get drunk,’’ he said.

He’s probably right. Theaters are among the few places that charge as much for Cokes as the NFL and Major League Baseball.

That may a good way to quit: Just don’t drink anyplace but pro sports events and movie theaters. Just never go with more than $2 over the price of a ticket.